Circa May 2014, India and circa November 2016, USA were notable for two things: one, the collapse of the hegemony of a global Left-Liberal world order premised on fake narratives, manufactured victimhood, dividing societies against themselves, all of which was enabled by a seemingly ironclad stranglehold over information, and two, the emergence of two strong-willed leaders who almost singlehandedly battled this world order based on the sheer strength of personality and a direct connect with the masses.
Leading this charge from the front in both cases was the so-called mainstream media. It’s amazing how quickly we forget the crucial period in India starting approximately in late 2012 up to the summer of 2014. Fake news, phony stings, planted interviews, personal attacks, downright below-the-belt abuse…the combined might, especially of the Lutyens media spared no device to frontally attack the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The same holds true for the incumbent US President Donald Trump.
Needless, this sort of politically-motivated, concerted, and multi-pronged assault by the media wouldn’t have been possible but for their being in bed with the ruling establishment, which provided them both cover fire and immunity against their brazenness.
But it was the magnitude of the victories of both these leaders that showed the precise extent of the strength of this vast media clique. Or to borrow Winston Churchill’s phrase, they were finally revealed to be sheep in sheep’s clothing, the menacing howl of the wolf exposing itself to be a mere bleat.
Expectedly, the aforementioned media is furious, scared, and trying to hit back at frequent intervals. And failing spectacularly. Because it has long since lost that fundamental, crucial, and distinctive ingredient: credibility, which emanates from a simple word: trust.
And so when it was still CNN-IBN under the inglorious regime of the Madison Square miscreant, Rajdeep Sardesai, countless Indians mocked it as “Islamic Broadcasting Network,” and NDTV as “Nehru Dynasty TV,” and “SpinDTV,” among other epithets. The heads and star anchors of most of these news outlets were subsequently put out to pasture by their own organisations and are still groping in wilderness.
But if political affiliation and marked bias were their only faults, one could perhaps understand it though not approve of it. Some of these characters turned political brokers, amassed untold, sleazy wealth, and indulged in threatening bloggers who called out their bias. And now that they’re slowly being brought to book, they’re all epitomes of self-righteous outrage. Except that it fools none.
The same more or less applies to that malicious network of epic proportions, CNN, which seems to have unleashed an unending campaign of lies and hatred against Donald Trump. And like in India, it has been fittingly labelled “Counterfeit News Network,” “Clinton News Network,” and so on.
The parallels are naked and staggering.
Early last month, in the wake of Income Tax raids investigating NDTV’s Empire of Sleaze (documented extensively in the book NDTV Frauds), the channel head Prannoy Roy (accused of illegally flattening entire sand dunes in Goa) organised a circus show of the selfsame discredited and disgruntled media persons and likeminded assortments who thundered with much sound and fury signifying nothing. The ostensible idea and purpose was to perhaps threaten or “warn” the Government. Of course, the garb is always “press freedom threatened.” The irony that the circus show not broadcast on any network other than NDTV was perhaps lost on them. Or perhaps not.
But at a deeper level, this was yet another flagrant display of the sense of entitlement that characterises much of the Indian English media.
Meanwhile, a parallel development with regard to CNN’s continuing campaign of hate against Donald Trump has erupted yesterday. And it’s rather comical. And highly revealing. CNN’s Brian Stelter wanted Twitter to suspend the US President’s Twitter account! The correspondence between Brian and Jack Dorsey of Twitter is best read verbatim, reported by the Daily Wire.
So, so, so, we were over there, right? And we weren’t doing nothing, okay? *wipes nose on sleeve* We were just doing journalism, fer real. And then-and then-and then Donald came over, okay? A-a-a-and he hit us with this tweet, see? Look at it! *wipes nose on other sleeve* You need to kick him off the Twitter playground, cuz-cuz-cuz he’s not s’posed to hit us. You said so.
Dear Brian:
As a wise man once said, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” Do you think we haven’t been watching what is going on? Do you think we didn’t see how quickly you moved on after one of your own practically killed Steve Scalise? Do you think we haven’t seen your entire gang endlessly taunt Donald with lies and fake news? We also saw you pay those other kids to pretend to kill Donald. You crybabies started it and now that Donald is tweeting out a harmless joke at your expense, I find it pathetic that you can’t take it. Grow up.
Dear Jack:
I hope you get hit by a train.
Note the last line by the CNN eminence. Now compare this tweet by — yes — NDTV journalist and anchor, Sunetra Choudhury against Narendra Modi.
I rest my case.
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